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Appeal against refusal to register  “NEOGEN DERMALOGY”

20/01/2022
Grounds: Article 74.2(c) and 74.2(e),  IP Law

Outin futures Co., Ltd., the owner of trademark application No. 4-2016-39469  “NEOGEN DERMALOGY” sought for registration of products “Cosmetics for skin nourishment and skin care, cosmetics for the scalp. sunscreen cosmetics…” in Class 03 has petitioned with the IP Vietnam to appeal against the latter’s decision to refuse to register the mark on the grounds that the applied-for trademark does not meet the registration requirements as specified at Article 74.2(c) and 74.2(e),  namely causing confusion with the earlier trademark “Neogene” under  the National Registration No. 329416 and the trademark “NEOGENIC” under the International Registration No.1131805.  

The appellant appeals, arguing that the IP Vietnam’s decision concluding that the word "DERMALOGY", which is created by removing non dominant element "TO" from the word "DERMATOLOGY", descriptive of the products “Cosmetics for skin nourishment and skin care, cosmetics for the scalp. sunscreen cosmetics…” in Group 03 is unfounded, subjective and emotional. Moreover, the trademarks “Neogence” and “NEOGENIC” under the different applicants/trademark owners as cited marks, despite containing the same word element “NEOGEN”, registered for identical and similar products in Class 03 but have already been accepted for registration. This evidence shows that the IP Vietnam believed that consumers can completely distinguish these cited marks from each other, so why can't they distinguish them from the applied-for mark "NEOGEN DERMALOGY".

The case is being reviewed by the IP Vietnam./.

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